My mother has it. It's because she dyes her hair. She is not pleased with the grey hairs that keep showing up, so she dyes them once in a while. I have told her not to dye it anymore. I think it would be beautiful if her hair became completely silver and if she grew it out long, like my science teacher (well, not that my science teacher is beautiful, no offense intended to her...But who knows how she looked in her youth?).

Hair dye reminds me of the Studio Ghibli movie, Howl's Moving Castle, one of my all-time favorite movies of time. You know, I'd like to say that even if a movie is animated, it doesn't mean it's not worth watching. (I liked the movie Up, too, and Finding Nemo as well. All those movies have some hidden messages in them, be sure to pay attention to that too)

There's a scene where Howl, a magician who lives in a big, mechanical, moving structure powered a by a demon (the demon's name is Calcifer, and he appears to be a fire), was taking a bath when his hair changed colors. It was because Sophie, a main character of the movie (she was a girl, but a witch cast a spell on her that made her become an old lady) was cleaning the bathroom and probably mixed up the chemicals. Howl's hair turned red, which devastated him, as he had previously had a nice blond shade of hair. He started to moan about how life wasn't worth living if he wasn't beautiful. Then Sophie got upset and said, "I've never been beautiful!" and stormed out. Later on, Howl's hair darkened to black.

I often wonder during the film if Sophie has low self esteem or something. She always seems to think she is ugly even though she isn't. SPOILER! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want it to be spoiled for those of you who haven't watched the movie. But there is one scene where Howl tells Sophie her hair looks like starlight, which I think is a very nice simile. Sophie seemed to appreciate the compliment, unlike a different time. There was one scene where Howl gave Sophie a gift, beautiful meadows and water. It was a place where he had spent his childhood. Sophie was pleased at first, but soon became saddened, saying she thought this meant Howl was going to leave. She said she wanted to help him, even though she was only good at cleaning. Howl tried to tell her that she was beautiful, but she didn't accept it. She just said, "The good thing about being old is that you don't have anything to lose." But I wonder if that is really true.

Well, anyhow, though many of the Studio Ghibli films are quite nice, I still like Howl's Moving Castle the best. It was based off a book, but I haven't read the book. I actually checked out the book from the library once. However, since I always read books (and eat food, too) in the order of least favorite to most favorite, I didn't get around to it, and unfortunately had to return it. Perhaps I should request it from the library. (But I would like to get one of the newer copies that has the Howl's Moving Castle movie picture on it...)

So I've been wondering, has anyone read the Howl's Moving Castle book? If so, is it similar to the movie? Or is it a lot different? If the book is really good, I would like to read it. (Usually I either read the book/manga for something or watch the movie/anime for it, and occasionally both. But I'd rather spend my time reading books/manga that don't have movies, and watch movies that don't have books or anime)

It amazes me that I haven't really talked much about Howl's Moving Castle before in my blog. Perhaps it was because I watched it in the theaters, back in fourth grade or so, and it became far from my memory because I was distracted by other things. I'm glad I found it again, though. I never get tired of watching good movies and anime. Do you have a movie or show that you love so much you don't get bored of it?

Labels: animated film, anime, beauty, books, boredom, calcifer, cleaning, colors, grey, hair dye, hayao miyazaki, howl, howl's moving castle, movie, old, sophie, studio ghibli, teacher

The inspiration for this post came from what I heard on the radio. I think the station was PBS (stands for Public Broadcasting Station), but I'm not quite sure. On the radio, the topic was Japan, and how it has kind of "swept the world" and become known as "cool". The Hayao Miyazaki films, such as Spirited Away, were mentioned. (I was pleased with that, seeing as I am very fond of those films.)

A man went to Japan, and was guided by a woman called Lisa (or Risa, if you want it to be more Japanese :o ). Lisa showed the man a place that was totally filled with photo booths. Photo booths are not that common in the USA. I've only seen them in two places - in Chuck E. Cheese (I know because I have a picture taken with my dad from there. It was fairly simple, though, we didn't get to decorate it or anything like that) and at a local mall (there is a place with a couple of photo booths. The place is called Angel Pix, I think). There were a few people trying out a photo booth, actually.

Well, Lisa told the man that he wouldn't have been able to go inside the photo booth place unless he was accompanied by a girl. Apparently guys aren't supposed to go into the establishments. On the radio, they even said that "If a guy asks to see a girl's photo booth sticker collection, that's very offensive. It's like asking to see someone's underwear." (I don't really know if it's true, but I'll go with the flow) The man and Lisa picked a photo booth that would make you into a Beautiful Girl. The man was given the chose of being a Sweet and Pretty Beautiful Girl or a Colorful Beautiful Girl, and he chose the former. They had to make a certain pose for the picture (not sure what the pose was, since this was on the radio, not on TV). Then they could decorate it, adding bees, and butterflies, or whatever things you can add. And then some sheets came out of the machine, with many identical little stickers of the decorated photo. (I heard that it cost 400 yen. That's like $4 in the USA.) Thus, the man had become a Beautiful Girl. XD

Afterwards the man said that he had seen girls in schoolgirl outfits just like the ones in the manga his daughter read. I thought this was interesting since when I had been in Japan, I had seen some students, but their outfits were black, and not like those sailor-style seifuku (uniforms) that you'll see often in anime. I wonder if I just didn't go to the right place. I'd like to go to Japan again, and go to Hokkaido so I can see the Sapporo Snow Festival, but unfortunately the Snow Festival is in January, so I'll be in school and I can't go.

There are other things I think about besides just things that are impossible are highly unlikely to happen, though. I think many of my peers are still caterpillars. They are young and restless and still innocent. They're still gold, like that poem by Robert Frost...

"Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay."

I saw this poem in the book The Outsiders. The meaning of the poem could be said to mean that nothing perfect can remain; something will go wrong and ruin it, because that's part of human nature. And it can also mean that you might be young and innocent, but you won't always be.

Some people strive for things, like getting all A's or becoming a doctor or making a million dollars or finding a cure for cancer. I've been wondering why they have such goals. If you want to be a doctor, is it because you truly think you can save lives? (If you're a veterinarian, you'll have to be prepared for killing animals, too, because sometimes you must euthanize them.) Or is it because your parents wanted you to? Because it was a respected career or for the money? Or for the title of Doctor? (Ashamedly, if I wanted to be a doctor, I would probably want it for the title.) I hope that my fellow people understand what their motives are for doing things. If you want good grades, is it to better yourself? To feel that you have improved and are striving for your limits? Or is it to keep your parents from hitting you and from taking away your privileges? It'd be good if everyone would take a little time to look at what they want to achieve, how they will achieve it, and why they want it. If they can't answer the why, a very important part, then probably they're truly a part of the rat race. I heard the rat race being described as, "We keep going and going even though we don't know why we do."

It's when you know yourself and your dreams and are fighting to achieve them that you truly turn into a butterfly.

Labels: beautiful girl, doctor, dreams, hayao miyazaki, innocence, japan, nothing gold can stay, photo booth, poem, radio, rat race, robert frost, sapporo snow festival, seifuku, the outsiders, uniform, youth

It's good to brush your teeth at least twice a day, and even better to brush after every meal. (That's something I don't do, hehehe. I really don't floss enough either.) But what people don't necessarily remind you to do is to brush your tongue. Your tongue gets dirty too, so keep it clean! I remember when I was younger one time my tongue felt uncomfortable or something. It was because it wasn't clean. I forget what was stuck to it... Perhaps toothpaste? But nowadays I just give it a quick swipe so it won't get dirty. Be careful when you're brushing your tongue unless you want to throw up. It's pretty nauseous if you brush towards the back of your mouth.

I watched the movie 2012 over the weekend. It's not really a new movie anymore, but I had wanted to watch it. I actually didn't know much about it - I know it was about the world ending (Apocalypse, is that the word for it?) - but I expected it to be kind of like a documentary. It was actually more of a science fiction movie, I guess. It was very saddening, seeing people die and cities fall and all that, but then the movie ended on a hopeful note. For some reason it seemed very wrong for it to be like that, because the survivors all smiled and (seemingly) had forgotten their loved ones who had perished, the homes that they had lost. It was like the movie made me all panicky and then eventually said, "Oh, it'll all be okay in the end, even if we have to go live on Africa because the rest of the Earth is underwater." It would have made more sense to me for all the people to die, but of course there has to be some sort of a happy ending.

Well, anyways, I was starting to panic because of how horrible it was seeing the cities falling down and the ocean swallowing up the land. The destabilizing of the Earth's crust began in California, because we have fault lines here, thus making earthquakes more likely. So I thought, "Well, we should hurry and move elsewhere, so we can live just a little bit longer than we would here." Because that way, we'd have a little time to say goodbye.

Of course, a lot of people say the world's not going to end in 2012. I'm really not sure. I have a tendency to be paranoid, and besides, I find the thought of the world ending kind of exciting, so I tend to believe it will happen. Who knows, though? We won't be able to find out until it happens.

Oh yes, and before I forget, there was one part in the movie I found really meaningful. It was a scene in the movie showing people in Italy praying to be saved. Then they noticed that the ceiling was cracking. A crack ran along the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...and separated Man and God! (That famous painting, you know?) You can imagine the shock it caused. It was like God had given up on the humans.

That's why the ships that people boarded so they might be able to live were called Arks. It's a reference to Noah's Ark...The ship Noah boarded along with two of each kind of animal to ride out the storm while God gave the Earth a "fresh start". (No wonder in the movie I saw elephants and giraffes being airlifted to the Arks...)

Speaking of other movies, I was thinking about going to the movie theater sometime. I still have Silver movie tickets left and I haven't used them up. I was planning to see the movie Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (It's a Hayao Miyazaki film, from Studio Ghibli, and I am a great fan of their work, so I have to see it!) but it's already gone from the theaters. I was really saddened. The other day my mom and I were looking at movies that are in theaters currently, like the Princess and the Frog (which I heard my history teacher took his son to see. Is it good? I might want to see it even if it is intended for a younger audience), and New Moon (which I won't be watching; usually books are better than their movie counterparts, so since I didn't like the Twilight books much, I probably won't like the movies much either).

There's a movie called Avatar that came out recently. I had no idea what it was about so I jumped to the conclusion that it was Avatar: The Last Airbender (the cartoon about the bald guy with an arrow on his head! Wahoo!) Actually, it was about aliens, I think. I really have to stop jumping to conclusions. XD

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, avatar, california, dental hygiene, god, happy ending, hayao miyazaki, movie, new moon, noah's ark, ponyo, sistine chapel, studio ghibli, survival, the princess and the frog, tongue

Top ↑